Sakuya

Sakuya is one of the five Witches that exist in Regnant. Sakuya bears the responsibility of suppressing Gohra Volcano as the Priestess of Amatsu, a land to the far east. She is polite and gentle, often compared to a saint, and is idolized by all.

She has a deep sense of responsibility as the Priestess and is very diligent, not allowing any compromise when it comes to her work. As an idol, she takes great care in maintaining her beauty, often experimenting with new beauty methods.

Sakuya enjoys shopping and collecting scented incense, as well as poking fun at Nonoka.

Appearance
Sakuya has long, black, waist-length hair. Her clothing is centered around a multicolored color scheme with a slight emphasis on red and white. She has white boots and a big, yellow bowtie on the back of her shirt.

Personality
Due to her upbringing as the Priestess of Amatsu, Sakuya made the decision early in her life to fool those around her by acting kindly, gentle, and charismatic. It is later revealed in her chapter that she's actually quite blunt and with a sharp tongue that most wouldn't want to approach. She tries to hide this part of her from everyone but following her first Tuning, Alto convinces her to show her true self to everyone else.

Her personality later in the game is curt but honest. She won't hide facts from her friends or loved ones even if it means they'll be wounded by the words. She even pressures Lisette to reveal her true feelings to Alto as a result, unwilling to put up any further with Lisette lying to herself like Sakuya herself had.

Her personality can finally be summed up as himedere/tsundere, as she desires to be followed as a Priestess, but is actually quite emotional when it comes to things about her past or who she is. She despises Alto entering her heart without her permission until he later proves his worth as a confident man if the player chooses to max affinity her.

Prior to Main Events
Sakuya used to live in the country with her family, but when she was five, she was chosen as the Priestess of Amatsu and the Fire Qualia was embedded in her, turning her into the Fire Witch. Her family was paid a great sum of money to give her up, and they cut off all communication with her when she was taken to Amatsu, because the Priestess is not allowed to show favoritism to anybody.

A little more than ten years before the story, Sakuya met Nonoka in her shinobi village and gave her her box, which allowed her to perform her duties as a shinobi without getting stage fright. Due to this, Nonoka swore loyalty to Sakuya and became her bodyguard.

For years, Sakuya has silenced Gohra Volcano and protected the Gohra province. In her role as the Priestess and idol to the people of Amatsu, Sakuya learned to hide her true feelings about everything, since everyone expects the Priestess to be perfectly pure and demure at all times, and anything departing from that could earn her scorn and hatred. This damaged her emotional health so badly that by the time the story starts, she has become unable to sing.

Combat
"'Sakuya wields a katana that strikes powerful blows with each swing. Furthermore, she has a unique command-Stance. If you select the Stance command, she will take the Sword-Drawing Stance. The Sword-Drawing Stance allows you to use powerful skills in exchange for mobility. Use the Stance command wisely depending on the flow of battle.'""— Sakuya's unit introduction"

Focusing on physical attacks rather than magic, Sakuya differentiates herself from the other Witches as a close range fighter. As a wielder of Katanas, Sakuya has the highest Physical Attack of the Witches, with potent single-target damage capabilities.

Sakuya possesses a unique command mechanic in the form of Stance changing, which switches between her N-Stance (Normal stance) and SD-Stance (Sword-Drawing stance). Sakuya can only change stances at the start of her turn, before taking any action. Depending on Sakuya's current stance, her mobility, Skills and Abilities are significantly altered.

At the start of every battle, Sakuya begins in her N-Stance with a base Leg Speed (tile movement) of 5. With Skills such as Flash Strike, which has her charge forward one tile and negate enemy counterattacks; and Fan Play, a three-tile horizontal sweep attack that afflicts enemies with a burn, N-Stance is Sakuya's more versatile stance in terms of mobility and utility.

In her SD-Stance, Sakuya gains access to her powerful single-target Skills such as Sparrow Strike, a multi-hit attack which bypasses its target's Physical Defense while also negating counterattacks; and Terminal Strike, Sakuya's deadliest Skill which always hits and deals a flat 500 damage. However, in exchange for these powerful Skills at her disposal, SD-Stance lowers Sakuya's Leg Speed by 2. Assuming Sakuya is at her base Leg Speed of 5, this puts her on par with Archibald's abysmal Leg Speed of 3. Additionally, Sakuya's high damage Skills have hefty SP costs in turn; typically leaving her starved for SP after a one or two uses.

Because of her dependency on being in the right stance at the right time, focusing on N-Stance for mobility and utility will see Sakuya unable to perform to her full potential; while SD-Stance will see her lagging behind the party should she remain it.

Skills

 * Flash Strike: (Upon joining): Physical rush to 1 enemy, Negates Counter, Non-elemental, Range 1-2, Height 3, N-Stance.
 * Flame Strike: (Upon joining): Physical attack to 1 enemy, Negates Counter, Adds Burn. Fire. Range 1, Height 3, SD-Stance.
 * Sparrow Strike:(Level 20) Bypass enemy defense. Negate Counter, Non-elemental, Range 1, Height 3, SD-Stance.
 * Fire Blessing: (Level 23) Add Fire+ to ally weapons in range. Range 1-3, Height 7.
 * Fan Play: (Level 30): Physical attack in wide arc. Adds Burn, Fire. Range 1, Height 3, N-Stance.
 * Terminal Strike: (Level 35) Reduce enemy HP by 500. Negates Counter. Non-elemental. Range 1, Height 3, SD-Stance. (100% Accuracy)

Passive Abilities

 * Sword-Drawing Counter: (Upon joining): May counter while in SD-Stance.
 * Sword-Drawing Pre-emptitive Strike: (Affinity Rank 1): May perform a pre-counter strike while in SD-Stance.
 * Unsheathed Parry: (Affinity Rank 2) May negate physical damage in N-Stance
 * Fire Boost: (Level 26) Deal increased fire damage
 * Overcome Weakness: (Level 33) Negate weakness to wind damage.

Songs

 * Song of Fury: (Upon joining): Add ATK up to self and all nearby allies. Range 0-2, Height 5.
 * Song of Flames: Magic attack to all nearby enemies. Adds Burn, Fire, Range 1-2, Height 5.
 * Cherry Blossom: (Upon joining) Adds Crit Up to all allies. Continued effect: Add Critical Up to all allies.
 * Fiery Night: (Affinity Rank Max, Conducted) Fire attack to all enemies. Continued effect: Add Crit Up to all allies.