Mechatalk Final Gear: Viola - Nine of Pentacles

 20th Final Gear Mechatalk article here and time sure goes really fast! considering it has been 5 months since the first article of this series. After some detour with the Crossover series, Final Gear Mechatalk now return to the Original mechs featuring Viola with her Nine of Pentacles! From the onset when I started this series, I have planned to reach up to 20article posts, which I am grateful able to reach this milestone this day. The Mechatalk Final Gear will still go on regardless because I still have plans with this series and will not stop until I covered Akarna Team and some more UR Pilots at very least.

  Viola is a Fortune Teller who opened her fortune-telling business in Arita Nation, disguised as a maid cafe. A capable talent in her profession, Viola takes her craft seriously detesting scammers that tricks people with fortune telling even though she is rather bad in lying which makes her more awkward when it comes to telling her clients misfortune.  For some reason though she got her own mech; Nine of Pentacles despite she is not exactly a mercenary material in front line.

 In Final Gear, Viola is one of the starting SR Bomber Class with versatile kit and later got her own UR and Unique mecha which is a given considering her main heroine character design. In the battle she rains down bombardment with the giant crystal orb that Nine of Pentacles support while providing healing support for her teammates.

 One might expect Viola belongs to Hexel faction with her magician getup. But being an exception of her archetype, Viola is actually a freelance who hangs around in Arita minding her own business. Just like Elizabeth with her musical skill, Viola probably have clouts among influential people with her Fortune telling skill. Nevertheless I think nobody will bat an eye should she choose to blend in with the Hexel witches. Perhaps it is due to oversight or unfinished storyline, her Nine of Pentacles mech is grouped with Hexel faction despite the unit is manufactured in Arita.

 To be honest Viola is another prime example of Final Gear wasted potential. Viola is pretty much a perfect package of cute waifu and cool mecha design who should have something great awaits for her, but Final Gear series never do anything to elevate her. To make it even worse Final Gear Global really ruin Viola unique mech release just like among many other things as her mech just got released by the time the game almost enter maintenance mode which just kill any chance of hype except from dedicated fan.

 In battlefield, Viola is supposed to be a Jack-of all trade Bombers whose buffs is triggered by her Critical hits which she had a boost from Passive skills granting several variety of buffs for teammates. However her kit doesn't translate really well in-game and given her outdated damage modifier, Viola's performance is rather lackluster even when fully upgraded. I suppose she would be one of the unit who gain a rework if Final Gear didn't end up in its current predicament. So if you look for an all-rounder support unit, Arlene would provide a much better mileage compared to Viola unfortunately so.

 Viola probably has one of the best UR Upgrade skin for SR Pilots other than Coreleah. Her UR skill supposed to give her an advantage in PVP as she had an opportunity to stun her opponents. But given her outdated base stats, better go with UR Nia if you want to stun lock your enemies.

 Lackluster performance aside, just like her top tier character design, Viola no doubt had one of the best Oath skin in-game, heck probably she is the best one among SR waifus. However the competition started to stack against her when considering Natural UR Pilots and another SSRs like Aya Kujou with her special bacground. Nevertheless Viola is probably is my favorite Oath Skin even if my favorite Final Gear waifu is still Eloise.

 Despite Viola's wasted opportunity in this current iteration of Final Gear, I do hope she will get another chance to shine should there be a revival for Final Gear series. It is just a crime that such excellent material to be squandered pointlessly like this. In fact it is because of Viola's gorgeous design that prioritize to raise her to UR first even though I am interested to have Patricia reached her UR status as well. Should Final Gear able to survive long enough, Ariel and Patricia are actually some of my priority target to reach UR Status. For the next opportunity of Final Gear Mechatalk, we will get back to one of the infamous Starter SSRs, Dango Kobayashi!