I Am Setsuna isn’t the world’s toughest JRPG. Most of the bosses up until you hit the Aurorean Tiger are quite easy to defeat. However, the Aurorean Tiger is your first real brick wall kind of enemy. The type of boss that exists to make sure you’ve been fighting an appropriate amount of battles, getting enough EXP, and taking your vitamins.
You’ll know almost instantly if you’re not a high enough level to beat the Aurorean Tiger in I Am Setsuna. Pound for pound, it’s one of the most brutally offensive bosses in the game. It attacks are fast and powerful, and will even hit the tankier characters like Nidr and Endir extremely hard.
It is possible to over-level in I Am Setsuna if you’re patient enough, so if you want to go that route, you can do that and probably use any party make-up that you want. However, assuming you’re going at this playing the game at a normal pace (fighting the majority if not all of the enemies you encounter naturally), we’ll give you our recommendation on how to take on the Aurorean Tiger.
There are plenty of ways to take on this tough I Am Setsuna boss, however we opt for a safe, defensive, party make up including Setsuna, Nidr and Aeterna. Setsuna will heal, and deal damage with Lightning if everything is going well. Aeterna will keep the party buffed with Protect, and deal damage whenever possible, while Nidr will be your tank.
You have some liberty on Techs to use, so bring your favorite and strongest. For this strategy though, you’ll want to make sure you at least have Protect on Aeterna, Cure (obviously) on Setsuna, and Provoke/Counter on Nidr. Bring plenty of Potions, Ethers, and Atheninan Waters in the likely event that Setsuna is down and someone else will need to revive/heal. Also, if you have it, put Cloak on both Aeterna and Setsuna to reduce the chance that the Aurorean Tiger will go for them. The idea is to make sure that it’s focused on Nidr as much as possible. Preferably, if you have Spritnite Techs for Aeterna that can stun, confuse, and or paralyze, bring em, as it’s really the only way to sedate the tiger’s relentless assault.
To start the fight, have Aerterna cast Protect, starting with Setsuna if getting everyone in one shot isn’t possible. If you’re feeling confident, have Setsuna start rattling off some Lightning strikes, or if you want to play it safe, save her for Cures/revives only and save Lightning for when you can hit it extra hard with momentum. The Aurorean Tiger doesn’t really do much other than use one of its many elemental rush attacks. As long as you have the resources to withstand them, there aren’t any other curveballs you have to worry about.
Nidr should either be Provoking or Countering depending on the situation. If everything is OK, Provoke is the better move as it keeps the odds that the tiger will attack Nidr in your favor. However, if things start getting dire and you need some luck, Counter will completely negate all damage to Nidr, and even allow him to throw some back at the tiger. So if someone is down, if you’re using cloak, there’s a more than 50 percent chance that the Tiger will attack Nidr for no damage if you’re using Counter, giving you a free turn to stabilize the team.
With that basic strategy in mind, attack with Aeterna and Setsuna as much as you can, halting your attack when you need to have everyone heal up instead if needed. Don’t take unnecessary chances. As long as you stocked up on items, you shouldn’t have a problem chipping away at the Aurorean Tiger provided you’re not woefully under leveled. A good check is if Setsuna is being one-shotted from full health; if that’s the case, you’re probably too low.
As long as you’re patient, well-stocked with items, and defensive, you should have no problem overcoming this difficult foe. This is the strategy we used in I Am Setsuna, but there are plenty of other ways to skin this big cat. If you have an alternate strategy, feel free to share below, or ask us a question if you’re still having trouble with ours. Good luck!
