From my experience, Buster Sword Proficiency seems to be an increase as a max of in 0.077% per. battle. (Since the game only displays XXX.XX%, most of the time it's going up by 0.08, but occasionally 0.07, so I assume that it's just a part of the running "use 7's for things" that they've done, like with Hard Mode Minerva's HP).
The increases come from A) Attacking B) Using Abilities C) Blocking, and it looks like each of those contributes a maximum of 1/3rd of the total proficiency, and once it's contributed that amount, it'll stop doing anything. For me, 4-1-5 having two side-by-side spawning zones with 4-5 Wutai Troops made for really easy grinding up the Attack & Ability %ages. (That's also where I did DMW% grinding).
That meant for me that most of the last third was just from blocking damage, in which case 8-5-3 was ideal as it's got the Slaps & Razor Weeds as well as two side-by-side spawning zones. Aside from the Blizzard casting, they both do rapid multi-hit combos, and easily max out the block, allowing you to cast Flare, sipe them out, and then re-trigger the battle at the other location.
There are a few odd moments of the Proficiency % jumping up by a significant amount arbitrarily, but for the most part, it's fairly consistent. What I like most about it is that it establishes the auto-enhance for attacks and abilities doing boosted orange damage. Since the trigger for that mode is X+▢, you can activate it instantly, or trigger it at the end of a dodge roll which gives it really interesting utility, especially as a block tool.
Against Minerva, it seems like there're a lot of viable windows for taking advantage of that to boost damage for using Jump-type abilities to deal more damage as a dodge, to help make the Hard Mode version less of a crazy slog. I haven't gotten back around to giving it a go myself, (Hard Mode completion's the only outstanding trophy for me at this point), but figured that it'd be worth sharing here.
On another, related note my Japanese Hero Edition today.
The Crisis Core Reunion artbook's text is all in English and it's arranged like an English-language book (binding on the left) so I assume that that will potentially release in some stand-alone format at some point. It starts by stating that it's got art from the original and the new game, underneath an image of the Buster which seems exceptionally appropriate given its modifications. As an example, there's the OG art for Ifrit & Bahamut, but the new art of Bahamut Fury.
Interestingly because of this sort of mash-up of sourced artwork, sometimes they just have the in-game models of things, and other times there's art for the enemies. While 2nd Class Zack is primarily used as the size reference, a few images just have a generic human, while the Gun Bull Head, Dual Horn, & Bizarre Bug actually have a Dirge of Cerberus Vincent's silhouette. What's most shocking about that is that there's only a SKETCHED version of that Vincent used here as a silhouette in the Japanese "Dirge of Cerberus Complete Guide" where some of that art is being pulled from. Most of the artwork exists in the "Crisis Core Complete Guide" but that's not always the versions that are being used here and on top of that, there are companion pieces like the Ft. Tamblin Mountain Path that have new art alongside what's been included before. Because of the size of the book, all the art is all WAY bigger than any of those Complete Guides had.
This likely means that there's an internal archive of all that concept artwork that's been used for previous printings as well as stuff that's never been released that they're assembling these new books from. This is exceptionally good news for Dirge given that a vast amount of Dirge's concept artwork is just on the game disc in extremely low quality, so there's a possibility that we'll get a proper look at that at some point as well.
The game script is laid out like a Japanese book, and the end has the storyboards for a few scenes like the opening, Zack meeting Aerith in the church, and the ending as exist in the Complete Guide. I think there might be some that have new storyboarding, like the Sephiroth fight as the art style is quite different, but I'll have to go double-check that against a few other versions.
Copies of the game itself and the Steelbook case seem to be the same as have been released elsewhere. It also came with
a copy of Aerith's letter with the handwriting being done by her Japanese VA. I especially appreciate that the printed details also have little smudges on the text from what look like tears that have fallen on the page and darkened the paper while writing it. The fact that the holding box is designed to look like Tseng's sealed container of all of Aerith's letters is an especially nice touch.
The CCR 2nd Class Zack Play Arts figure is also really solid. The alternate hands aren't just loose, but rather they have little racks to help keep them organized, which is a godsend if you've got a number of figures and alternate pieces floating about. As usual it's got numerous small improvements in quality that makes the older versions look significantly dated when they're side-by-side.
X ![Neo :neo: :neo:](/forums/images/smilies/neo.gif)