Welcome to my hopeful guide on this chapter that I legit stressed over after doing the vague searching I could across the internet. I'm sure I don't need to explain there are spoilers for chapter 24 & chapter 25 in this guide. An attempt will be made to try and blur out the nitty bits of info for some surprise but this will give a general idea of the issues at hand. That being said,


Anywhere you look or ask around people will tell you, regarding this game, chapter 25 is unfair.

Chapter 25 takes place at Hakurei Castle where you need to split your team up into typically 3 person groups to defend at 3 different points. There is no general healing in between said fights and as people at this portion of the game are now well accustomed to the complete 5 party grouping being forced into a 3 man can come with added issues.
This, however, should not be the case if you've been adequately designating people in your group to roles - Attack (A), Defense (D), Support (S).

In the below section I'm going to explain my methods and setup, how I one shot ran through the entire chapter with few concerns, and finalizing with my suggestions to everyone else having trouble with this part in particular.

Before explaining how I managed to get through Chapter 25 I feel it prudent to clear up that there is a similar fight immediately before Chapter 25, taking place in Chapter 24. Immediately after beating the extensive fight in Chapter 24 you are transported to the scene of Chapter 25 to start up a equally grueling fight.

In the ends of Chapter 24 you are entrusted with putting explosives onto the beams of the Bridge located at the Humans Fort right where you embark on land at the Snow Realm. Before you can blow up the bridge you need to use two teams and fight on the bridge and protect the Human Fort. This consists of fending off continuous waves of Beastfolk and monsters for 10-15 minutes, with increasing difficulty with the enemies.
Once done with fending off those waves you are allowed to set up a 5 man team to then embark on a boss fight with Rouge, a Counsel Daemon before inevitably being driven out and sent to Hakurei Castle where you reach Chapter 25.

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Only spoilers are ahead so I won't be covering from here out. You've been warned.

When I went into Chapter 24 I thought I was already on Chapter 25. This immediately ensured that I made Chapter 24 harder then it had to be; the Bridge fighting sequence only calls for two split parties, which means you aren't constrained to 3 people per party. With all the given party members you can easily have 4-5 people per party in Chapter 24. However I made 3 person groups, not realizing this fact. And I had no trouble whatsoever.
My team set up was on the Bridge :

• Barbarosa (D)- Shield and Axe
  
• Azura (S)- Staff and Bow
  
• Tiggy (A)- Steam Cannon x2

and defending the Fort :

• Galil (D/A)- Greatsword and Sword
  
• Gene (S/A)- Staff and Sword
  
• Renzo (A)- Spear and Bow

Regretfully I didn't have Rachel, Vivian, nor Ignace (some of my powerhouses at the time) on a team as I had misunderstood the setups.

The way this fight works is Beastfolk and monsters will run down the Bridge. If any slip past your first group at the end of the Bridge fight the Fort defending group will clean up those that slipped past.
As Barabarosa is just a defensive god he tanked pretty much anything, Azura is peak support so she could heal his huge health bar, and I kept Tiggy in the middle as a mid ranged attacker with a duck mecha and a shotgun.
This team basically was goated and had no difficulties. My issues did lie with perhaps the weakest setup, defending the Fort. Only two groups managed to get through and Renzo was EASILY the weak point of this group. He was squishy and didn't deal the damage I wish he was doing, especially when Galil prioritized Defense and Gene Support.
Once the wave fighting is finished you then have to immediately go into a boss fight against the Daemon Counsel member Rouge. You are allowed to put together a fresh group of 5 for this encounter so things worked out better for me thanks to my mistake; Vivian, Ignace, and Rachel were topped off on SP and basically carried Rouges fight. It wasn't too bad but there were a couple instances of trouble, overall it was a fine fight though.

Once you defeat Rouge the Bridge is overwhelmed, the bomb is a moot point nobody brings up again, and you are kicked out of the Fort and informed to flee to Hakurei Castle, where Chapter 25 begins.

After being kicked out of the Fort fight in Chapter 24 and taking a moment to heal up any broken weapons and SP at the ship I make for Hakurei Castle.
Admittedly, this Chapter is annoying. It, however, wasn't the dumpster fire I was expecting.

Ascending Hakurei Castle and going through a brief cutscene, a cutscene that after streaming I realized I was a blind idiot to and will be mentioning further down this guide, we get to the nitty gritty. The 3 groups of 3.
One group is stationed right outside the 5th floor of the Pagoda. One team descends the East staircase and the other descends the West staircase. My setup consisted of
The Pagoda Defense :

• Barbarosa (D)- Shield and Axe
  
• Azura (S)- Staff and Bow
  
• Tiggy (A)- Steam Cannon x2

West Descent:

• Galil (D/A)- Greatsword and Sword
  
• Gene (S/A)- Staff and Sword
  
• Renzo (A)- Spear and Bow

East Descent:

• Vivian (A)- Sword and Spear
  
• Ignace (D/S)- Shield and Spear
  
• Rachel (A)- Bow and Spear

Prior to this fight, as I was aware of the difficulty of this particular chapter, I had already arranged and set up 3 separate formations on the ship for each group. As you can't add more 3 person groups until, I believe, you have more candidates for the Guilds. As such I just reconfigured a few of the preexisting formations, renamed them for the groups I intended them for, and as I had enough Guild members to add different effects to each category I fiddled with that as well.

With the plan in place, plenty of grinding under my belt, and a few more stupid decisions I went about doing Chapter 25.
On every floor the East and West groups must choose to either save a civilian or to prevent forces from reaching the Pagoda group.
Even now I do not understand why you wouldn't save the civilians. The group at the top is intended to catch the stragglers and saving the citizens ensures goodies later on. There is no legitimate reason to forsake the citizens as the East/West teams need to fight regardless and the Pagoda team shouldn't go unused. I'll explain further on this later in Misconceptions.

Saving every civilian along the way I wound up doing just fine, the worst fight occurring at the very bottom of the East groups descent. Once you have reached this point you will encounter a cutscene: Yukiha has been kidnapped to the roof! This is effectively a boss fight. Once you ascend past Yukiha's seated spot and run to her room you'll be transported to the roof to then have a quick cutscene with Grossa, a Daemon Counsel member, before getting into a fight with him.
This fight runs you ragged - using your prior setup of groups you can go through three battles against him.
Acknowledge this now - your party members will be downed and will die. This is purposeful. Your main objective is to simply do as much damage as possible to Grossa. So long as you have good management over your party setups, and designated people for the Attacking, Supporting, and Defense? This shouldn't be the end all for you. Yes it is a difficult encounter and hell if you need to go through a few Order Gems to get it that's understandable.
Unintentionally I beat it first try, with my final surviving team (Ignace,Vivian and Rachel- MVPS)
Once you win you get a brief cutscene of Grossa coming to terms with the whole situation before him, retreating, and your acknowledged victory followed by a file save.
And with this you've successfully beaten Chapter 25, the end all for a good portion of people in Alliance Alive.

This segment is to address all the things that I hadn't been informed of and, most likely, neither have you if you've researched about this part.


A dependent falsehood.
I'm not implying to grind but if you're just actively fighting and running through the areas, taking on a few of the Water Devil dens, gathering guild members, getting better equipment, managing your skills and formations properly? You'll have minimal issues.
I've messed up a lot of my characters with their skill sets- putting Hostile and Covert sets on both characters, not realizing I'm putting points into the wrong weapon on a different person, failing to learn the stats comparative to the considered weapons.
Overall, I'm not being smart about this. I just beat up anything that came in my path, gathered up everyone I could, and sought out gear and did about all the backtracking you could think of.
I could essentially one shot regular monsters in the Snow Realm, about one to three turns against trained Beastfolk.
If you find yourself struggling with the enemies before even the Chapter 24 Bridge fight then you'd best look into backtracking for a hot minute and grinding up some points for skills and getting money for some fresh gear.


A falsehood.
The only things you can actively lose in a fight are SP that you gradually regenerate mid fight and also after the fight, and if you are downed the characters maximum health is decreased until restored via resting or a certain health item.
After the Chapter 24 fight you can return to the boat and heal, meaning you can actively blow through the enemies without concern for your SP going into Chapter 25.
Once into Hakurei Castle you will receive 10000 So. from Juza. Initially I was confused about why he gave me that as you can't leave the area to go down into the shopping district, the Beastfolk already storming the castle. The only thing accessible are the hordes of women, children, and elderly that are filling the proceeding hall leading to Princess Yukiha.
What I failed to realize until right before the segment concerning Grossa's boss fight, right after the 3 party split descending the tower, practically every individual in those few rooms you have access to is a vendor of some sort. Inn, Dumpling Store, Shoes, Weapons- everyone provided something. Because I hadn't figured this out until I was only on a 3 man team (as they were left defending the Pagoda I was left running about with Azura, Barbarosa, and Tiggy) I couldn't give the provided gear to the people I wanted most to receive them as there was no way to reach them and approaching Grossa's fight starts it with the separate groups gathering only then, unable to receive the items.
Regardless there is a Inn and you can in fact rest and restore weapons before both the defensive fight and before the boss fight.


A falsehood.
Saving the civilians not only provides people to your guild but also grants you access to one of the two treasuries. By saving the people you can also send the spare enemies up to the defensive group at the top of the Pagoda for extra XP.


Facts, but it's completely possible.
I won't sugar coat that boss fight - Grossa takes a LOT of hits. Don't waste your chances and just get to stalling as long as possible and using every Ignition attack you can utilize. As I've stated your best chances are on each team to have a dependable Defense man who can not only tank hits himself but tank for others. Of course you need to give him proper support and dealing damage but most of all focus on keeping yourself alive and bleeding into the damage sponge known as Grossa. It's plausible and doable - so long as you've been putting in your skill points, managed your teams ideally, and appointed gear accordingly he's a plausible fight.


A falsehood.
Again, with proper equipment, battle experience, and mindful skills you shouldn't be struggling with a 3 man. If you are you should backtrack.
However if that isn't your cup of tea there are additional characters you can get in this game. Your team isn't constrained to the main 9- there is, before the Hakurei Castle fight, one more character you can obtain.
If you sail around more of the Snow Realm you will come across a larger body of land, an island with a cave up on a hill with a Water Devils den nearby. If you enter this location you will find penguins.
Straight up penguins.
They will talk to you and the 'Queen' will tell you how she's lost her son and her husband set out to find him. Sail over to that Water Devils den and you will encounter a strangely familiar penguin- on PC at least he is used as the start bar icon for the game. Sporting a marlin head as a helmet and with his blank expression of joy you encounter Robbins, father of 3 and flipper martial artist. He has pursued his son here in order to save him. Should you choose to help him on this fairly easy quest he will join your party.
Robbins, being a penguin, cannot hold a weapon. His Endurance is insane and he knows only two moves - a base hit and a really expensive but nice entire team support effect. As such Robbins quickly becomes an ideal Tank with decent damage and support capabilities.
Once you beat the Water Devils den and save his son he returns to his home. If you follow him there he will eventually decide to embark on you with your journey and you can thereafter hire his entire family, wife and 3 children, as guild members.
I did not find Robbins until after the the fights so he is not necessary but every helping hand is ideal. If I had found him before I would have put him as the Defense on my Galil, Gene, and Renzo set team in order to allow Galil to focus more on Damage to counter Renzo's lacking output.

As someone who doesn't look deeply into things I'm not going to be able to provide you key information - I can't tell you what scales what statistically, who does what best, and what gear you need to run. I will simply give you my two cents worth and you're welcome to that.

Keep Azura as a primary healer, typically in the back. There are a good number of staffs you can provide her. I utilized a Signimancy ring to cast healing/support spells, her main staff was an Ancient Etheract that used Sorcery but had stat increases and better damage then all other staffs I came across, and I wound up putting a bow on as her secondary in consideration for her stats, placement in the back, and it raised on of her key stats. Keep her armor light if possible and with as much resistance as possible.

Galil works well as both Defensive and Offense. I have him running Greatsword (of course I found an ever better one in a Water Devils den after the fight) and Sword. Galil knows a few Signimancy skills but I mostly utilize a Medicine Pack on him if healing gets tight. Keeping him in the front line as a defensive offense works best for the Greatsword/Sword arts.

A legit beast; Barbarosa takes the hits and deals them back. Running Shield and Axe I rarely take him off Defense role in the front lines but when I do he is doing massive damage since I've pumped nearly all his points into Strength and Endurance. It's highly likely he'll wind up slow but he is just a defensive god- half the fights we get into he takes 0 damage. Assigning him to Hostile positioning on at least Shield is the way to go.

Regrettably probably my least favorite character and the one I've really got no clues about what to do with. I've got him on light weight, running a Spear and Bow since he's typically middle bound in the formation. He's strictly swift Offense and since he doesn't do much damage as of yet I entrust him typically with first move stun moves or AOE's. Keeping Renzo light is ideal, especially if you've run into the situation I'm in where he can't do much else at the moment.

A character I forget about sometimes despite him being pretty strong. Running with a Staff and basic Sword for a free Ignition attack I wind up putting Gene either middle of back, typically back in formation just to reduce his threat level despite it resulting in less damage. It works out though as he does have a handful of Supporting Signimancy alongside Offensive Signimancy. Keep him relatively light on his feet.

Sniping Queen? Check. Keeping Rachel with a Bow is ideal, but I have her with a Spear as a backup and free Ignition attack. Keeping her middle is perfect especially if you can get the Attack/Speed boost position unlocked from the Tactics Guild. Definitely keep her light armor wise and focus on giving her Covert positioning in her Bow Skills.

Vivian is a personal powerhouse Offensively. I keep her either front or middle in formation, running Spear but primarily Sword. Her and Ignace are Sorcery elites so summoning a Sword for free Ignition is a great strategy for both of them. Even though she is almost strictly Offense her Sorcery skills have come together to the point she can essentially be her own personal Support unit. Try to keep Vivian armor light as, better then Renzo, she can outspeed and outdamage pretty much everyone.

The way I've built Ignace is likely incorrect but at this point he's pulling through as a Defensive/Offensive tank almost on par with Barbarosa. By pouring all his armor/accessory gains into Endurance I've made Igance a magic tank - he's faster than Barbarosa and still deals decent damage, equally being a personal Support unit similar to Vivian with the Sorcery skills. On top of being able to summon a expendable Ignition Sword, which he has some points in, he can summon an Ignition Spear as well, his second weapon choice besides Shield. Keep Ignace front lines if you need a tank, otherwise scoot him either front or middle if you're seeking a heavy hitter.

Another one I don't really know QUITE what I'm doing with. At present though Tiggy is focusing Offense and is perfect for specialized typing damage and AOE's. Swan Song mecha doesn't make Tiggy a tank but she can take a hit or two, dependent on the armor you provide her. As Tiggy is primarily a ranged unit it's best to keep them in the middle row with Covert positioning options on the Steam Cannons. Tiggy is somewhat heavy as well, which is fine she's not doing anything incredible quickly.

Regrettably I am writing this immediately after getting Robbins and I don't have enough experience to give a ideal strategy setup for Robbins. Presently I'm going to build him like a Defense/Offense but with both the accessories I have equipped to him he can easily become a Support unit capable of casting both Sorcery and Signimancy. His main concern is an increase rate to gaining SP as he'll bleed through it. Otherwise, for the time being, he'll likely be front row smacking and getting smacked. He'll likely be decently heavy, perhaps the same amount as Ignace.

A character you can't obtain until AFTER Chapter 25, once he helps you fighting near the bottom of the Castle. He uses a Greatsword and Sword, with incredibly Offensive capabilities. Despite his higher health he's not the most Defensive guy so you can play with his frontline position being Covert or Hostile, but you have to pick one per weapon as they cancel the other out. Keep that in mind and keep him light on his feet and he'll be sweeping the floor with their bones before you have a chance to blink.

As I've stated I'm no expert. I just want this personal experience to be perhaps viable information for others who are concerned to approach this game simply because Chapter 25 is deemed unnecessarily cruel. This game easily draws you in with its story, its arks, its comedic and tense moments, the open adventure and possibilities, the consequences you deal yourself? It's an enrapturing RPG that certainly deserved the Remastered posting.

If you're a fan of the RPG styling and you're looking for a bizarre adventure? Pick this up. It reminds me of so many good RPG's - Xenoblade, Trials Series, Octopath Traveller, Ni No Kuni, Tales of Series, Ys Series - all good options and I wish this game had more recognition like these did.
Don't be deterred away just because of one difficult sequence.
Explore, find your own way, and experience the story you follow.