Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Guide: How to Play as Cinque

With her slim build, ditzy personality, and status as the resident airhead of Class Zero, you’d never guess that Cinque was the big bruiser of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. Cinque looks a lot likeFinal Fantasy VII’s Aeris and at first glance, I thought she’d be my go-to magic user of the game. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find that she takes on the Berserker class who’s always ready to deliver a world of pain to her enemies.

Cinque’s weapon of choice is the mace, which often makes me wonder how she can swing that thing around when she’s such a tiny person. The unfortunate thing about Cinque is that her attacks are extremely slow in battle, making it near impossible for her to hit Kill Sights and Break Sights. Her movement speed isn’t very good either, though she does more than make up for it with an incredibly high attack stat.

Simply put, she’s just like Jack, except she can move at a decent speed even with her weapon drawn. However, Jack has abilities that enable him to hit even the swiftest of foes despite his poor speed while Cinque doesn’t. If you need someone to sacrifice in order to summon an Eidolon, she’ll probably be the first on the chopping board. Having said that, you definitely shouldn’t write Cinque off immediately; put in enough time and effort, and you’ll find that she can be an incredibly useful melee powerhouse.

The biggest challenge that comes with using Cinque is trying to actually hit your enemies. Given her slow attack speed, missing an attack will leave her wide open to surrounding foes. Your best bet is to upgrade her dodge capabilities by purchasing Accelerate and Slipstream as soon as possible. After that, you’ll want to focus on upgrading her Earthquake ability. Earthquake allows Cinque to attack the ground to damage surrounding enemies and possibly inflict Stun. By stunning your enemies, Cinque has a much better chance of hitting them and doing some serious damage. Upgrading the Magnitude of Earthquake will increase the stun rate, and purchasing Flinchproof Quake is also recommended so that the attack can’t be interrupted.

Another ability you should unlock early on is Focus. Focus allows Cinque to charge up her attacks and this goes really well with Earthquake. A good strategy for Cinque is to quickly stun enemies with Earthquake, and then whack them hard with charged attacks. It’s also worth noting that the charge won’t be interrupted even while you’re dodging.

When you’ve leveled her up enough, you’ll gain access to abilities such as Homerun Swing and Mace Cyclone. Homerun Swing is kind of like a charged attack in that you hold down the command button for as long as you can before releasing it to deal a massive amount of damage to whichever poor sop happens to be standing in your way. The only downside to Homerun Swing is that you can’t dodge while charging, though you’ll be able to run out of harm’s way. If you’re confident in your aim, feel free to purchase Cheerleader, which allows Cinque to psyche herself up and inflict more damage with her next attack. Cheerleader and Homerun Swing make for a pretty deadly combination – if you can hit your enemies, that is.

Mace Cyclone is probably my favorite ability to use because it pretty much guarantees that Cinque will damage any enemies standing near her. Mace Cyclone is a fun attack because it allows Cinque to dangerously swing that giant mace around and send her surrounding enemies flying. It’s a fantastic crowd control attack and you can be sure it’ll deal a big ton of damage to her foes.

Cinque boasts one of the highest attack and defense stats in Class Zero, making her a wonderful melee tank. Because her attack is so ridiculously high, she can make quick work of physical-resistant foes without having to rely on magic. Though her slow speed holds her back a lot, Cinque is a great character to pull out when you’re facing enemies with high HP.