Dodge becomes your best friend, and exchanging blows on
an enemy with your party member can become quite spectacular if you can execute swings in a synchronous manner.
Kor will turn into a flash as he teleports around the enemy delivering devastating blows — you can even double team
the enemy with another party member to deliver a lot of damage.
Not exact matches
Targeting is as simple as touching the
party member or monster you want to select, and overall the battle system works well although like most games
with random battles, can get very tedious, especially when backtracking and potentially fighting much lower level
enemies that you can kill in one hit but still have to go through all the motions of attacking and targeting.
Also, using those very Battle Arts fills up the Ignition gauge (along
with attacking
enemies, taking damage, and having a
party member KO'd).
Knockback along
with area - of - effect can make short work of most
enemies while you can use the experience points that you get after level up to raise the stats of each of your
party member.
Your
party members, and the
enemy party, are placed on separate grids
with eight squares each.
Similar to its predecessor, Lost Sphear uses an active time battle system (ATB system)
with each
party member equipped
with a basic attack along
with several skills the character can unleash on its
enemies.
When you are playing you can only control one of the three characters you have in your
party, but you can flip through each
party member at the touch of a button and as such, allows you to pull of a huge musou attack
with one, switch quickly to the next and repeat, switching to the third
member and unleashing musou hell again... This is of course a tactic I deployed and one that works well, especially when taking on multiple
enemy generals or lots of
enemy soldiers at the same time.
- first 30 mins or so can be confusing if you haven't played the demo - Yew Geneolgia is the leader of the Three Cavaliers, who guide the Crystalguard into battle - mission of the Crystalguard is to Protect pope Agnes Oblige from harm at all costs - Agnes is captured by this game's new villain, Kaiser Oblivion - together
with Cryst - Fairy Anne, they hatch a plan that becomes more apparent as you move along - one of Yew's longterm partners, Janne, has betrayed everyone and actually works for this newly formed Empire - he killed most of the remaining Crystalguard - Yew finds the final
member Nikolai of the Cavaliers before his death and requests of him to simply walk away - Yew is determined to bring Agnes back from the airship she is being held captive on - Yew is young and gets easily scared - Edea Lee from the previous game returns - Magnolia Arch, a Ba'al Buster warrior who claims to come from the moon also appears - between lines of English dialogue, she speaks lines of French as well - there is a long chat between all three characters about how adventuring and camping can be a ton of fun -
Party Chat makes its return, and seems a bit more humorous this time - Tiz Arrior will also join your team - some things in Luxendarc have changed since the last game - the world is more united against this common threat - if you beat all
enemies in a single turn, it enables the «Bring It On!»
Moving on to the way battles actually work, let's start
with the fact that they occur in a localized bubble — pulling you away from the map and into a small area where your current
party members and
enemy spring forth.
Alfyn can use Concoct to create potions
with various effects, including healing
party members or damaging
enemies.
Players also have the ability to manipulate attack order — you can trade a
party member's turn
with another
party member, or even an
enemy, so that you can set up devastating combos.
This becomes an issue, as being able to control the spacing between your
party members and the
enemies is a major key to successfully completing the maps
with a high ranking.
In addition to having the ability to heal
party members, Medics can also keep
enemies at bay
with attacks that stun or add status effects and have skills that deal
with medicine, like herbology.
You can also swap which
party member you are currently in control of
with the square button, and this is used cleverly, as certain
enemies are weak to attacks from a specific person.
Battles occur in real time
with up to three
party members, facilitating clever positioning and skillful dodging to avoid incoming
enemy attacks.
With KINGDOM HEARTS Union χ [Cross], players can create teams of six from their
party members or through a matchmaking feature to fight hordes of Heartless
enemies and powerful bosses.
Using abilities together
with your
party members in battle starts a chain that can help to dealing more damage against
enemies and boosting up your
party's abilities.
You can collect orbs dropped from
enemies to bring yourself back to life as long as there's a single surviving
party member, but you'll only come back
with one hit point so it's hardly a free ride.
Using certain attacks which
enemies are weak to but have affinity
with party members can trigger Sessions, which boil down to free follow - up attacks from your allies.
Each
party member has a variety of attacks, items and skills to use against
enemies,
with influences from both the Elements and Weapon triangle systems from both SMT and Fire Emblem present.
The strategic elements of battling include actual options which you set for your AI controlled
party members in which you designate the strategy they will use whenever they are not under your control: conserving HP by avoiding
enemies when under 25 % health, the frequency
with which they link
with each other, and even the initial formation they are in at the start of battles are only some of the options you must tweak depending on the
enemies you're facing and the difficulty you're playing at.
Because refilling the spheres is relatively easy, and
enemies can take a considerable amount of damage before they die, I found myself experimenting
with each of my
party member's attacks.
But the problem
with this game is they fixed none of the original games bugs and even added a whole ton of new ones, like your
party members stuck on attacking invisible
enemies, the game crashing every 30 mins (thank god for auto save).
In this edition, the hero's
party members show up on - screen right there
with the
enemies.
The basic premise of most Dragon Quest titles is to play a hero who is out to save the land from peril at the hands of a powerful evil
enemy,
with the hero usually accompanied by a group of
party members.
The battle system consists of a three -
member battle
party with enemies engaged on the field map in real - time for fast - paced combat.
You can only make text so small on an 8 - bit system without getting into serious VRAM issues, and this interface packs in a lot of information that most RPGs didn't even bother
with, like details about the
enemies» current HP and health bars for the player's
party members to help them better visualize how their
party is holding up.
Tasked
with defending a wide open
party member, these
enemies can make swift work of your entire team and have ridiculous amounts of HP.
It's a simple system but elegant in its own way, as it forces you to balance hurting the
enemy with keeping your own
party members alive for another round.
The «insect glaive» can be used as an acrobatic device, flinging its wielder into the air so they can drop down on
enemies for extra damage, and the «hunting horn» is a slow melee weapon that can also provide buffs to
party members with its songs.