Tips & Secrets
SAVE OFTEN!!! Danger lurks around every corner.
Whether you like it or not, you'll probably need to spend some time leveling up if you want to stand a chance in Sweet Home.
Remember that certain enemies can be harmed by certain items. This can help you greatly, especially early in the game. Check the Enemy List for more info.
Not unlike Final Fantasy V, the game has different endings depending on which characters were alive when the dust settled. You can download savestates of each of the endings in the Download Sections.
Just as in real life, your characters can only die once before they're gone for good. In other words: DON'T LET THEM DIE!!! Even if certain characters are dead, you can still beat the game, but it makes it much harder. (Actually, you need at least two characters alive for the final battle against Mamiya...but it is possible, but very difficult, to finish the battle with only one character alive...).
Remember that it's a lot easier to dodge shadows and roaming enemies when you're alone.
Don't know where the Pulley is? Look for it in the lower-right corner of a small room in the middle of the Inner Sanctuary (This room). Also, you can find a pair of Gloves in the room north of the fountain in the Courtyard (This room). Other than these two, the Dress and the Mallet, are there any other hidden items?
If you are unfortunate enough to have a character die, they will still carry whatever items they had previously. You can even trade items with their corpses as you could if they were alive. o_O
Have your parties travel closely together. That way, you'll always have access to the items that you need, and if you're ever in a difficult situation, you can call on your other party for help.
Be sure to get the Dress from Mamiya's bed in her room. This will refill your Pray Points, and can be used infinite times.
Always remember where you leave important items. This will save you a lot of searching and frustration when you need to use them again.
Use Tonics sparingly. You only have 21 in the mansion, and when you're out, you're out...
If you don't want to be grabbed by a Shadow, hide under an overhang. As long as you're not visible on screen, the Shadows can't touch you.
Want an alternate way out of Ichirou's Study in the Inner Sanctuary? There's a hidden passage in the Southeast corner of the room.
Only one of the "sand trap rooms" in the Dungeon is worth entering, the first one. Go into it to see a Fresco, and get a Pitct Fork, the best weapon in the game. Just make sure that you have a character with a rope standing on the plank to get you out!
To get some more mileage out of the tonics, you can call your other party members into a battle (so you have all 5 characters in the same battle). Using a Tonic in this situation will have it affect all 5 characters.
Roaming enemies getting you down? Remember that they always chase the active party, so you can use one party as a decoy, and then switch to the other party and slip by. Or you could leave a character in a room with roaming enemies in it. When an character is in a room, the vanquished foes won't regenerate! Also, shadows won't regenerate if a character is left in the room (This is useful in the Final Area... hide one character under an overhang and keep sending in characters to get carried away by the shadows.).