Wednesday 30 March, 2005

So I take back (partially) what I said about the challenge level. It's at least average, with the regular enemies being a little more challenging (relative to player's expectation) than the bosses.

The dictum "know thy enemy" is even more important than ever. Even the regular enemies are virtually invincible if you keep hitting them with the wrong type of attack, and even if you use the correct attack type, the battle is likely to drag on a bit unless you've really got a good handle on the game's timing system.

I cleared about half (?) of a 'dungeon' sequence today. Thank the developers for halfway save points, because I didn't want to play too long (work commitments :( ). The monsters here are pretty tough, but it becomes a lot easier once you have a handle on their weak points and Break sequences. There's quite a bit of backstory going on which has cleared up some of the mysteries of Episode I, but I fully expect more questions to be generated as the game progresses.

Quick question: How can you tell what the correct attack is? (trial and error?)
I'm just curious given that some games go down the "make it obscure" route while others are a lot more open with that sort of information.

For the monster's damage-type weaknesses, it's the same as any other RPG: either observe the damage done, or cast a scan spell on it (scan is pretty cheap MP-wise).

For the monster's Break combo, it's a little more interesting. You don't get this info by scanning.

There are 3 possible "attack zones" on a monster: low, high and very high. These have letters associated with them: C, B and A.

Whenever you perform an attack on a monster, the letters in your attack combo appear on screen. Typically C is the Triangle button, B is the Square button, and the Circle button is contextual. The corollary is that monsters with a "very high" weakzone tend to be more difficult to Break - such as flying monsters or really big ones.

So when you get one of the letters right, it appears as red rather than white. Think "Mastermind".

For example, a particular monster in the early game has a Break combo of ABB. If I hit it with a BB attack, the second B in my attack indicator appears as red rather than white. If I hit it with BC, both letters appear white.

If, however, I hit it with an A, then immediately a BB (not possible unless you Boost another character in to continue the combo!), all the letters will be red, and the monster's guard will be broken - this allows us to use some special attacks, and also increases regular attack damage.

Your characters can learn a skill VERY early on which lets you "save" the monster's Break combo. If at least one of your active battle characters has this skill, when you successfully Break a monster, the combo will be saved and thereafter listed in the monster's information whenever you fight another monster of that type.

By the way, this element of the battle system wasn't present in Episode I. Shame.

Wow! That definitely sounds like a lot more depth than what I was expecting. In particular since you mentioned that the difficulty isn't easy. (as opposed to my experience with Golden Sun 2, which had a cool system that was totally useless since the fights were so easy)

Well, even in an RPG, "easy" is relative - but I find that Episode II is giving me a run for my money. Episode I was a bit easier, though the late-game fights got pretty tough and some of the bosses were HARD hard.

Case in point: I'm in the 3rd "dungeon" of the game; still very early on. There's a particular group of 3 monsters at the beginning of the stage which pincer-attacks you. The first time I tried fighting them, my party was very nearly wiped out because I wasn't paying attention to their damage weaknesses and took awhile to learn their Breaks. I reset and tried again, now armed with the knowledge of their weaknesses and Break sequences, and managed to beat them without getting any of my party KO'd - though I had to use a healing item during the fight.

There's a "risk-reward" mechanic to the battles, too. If you manage to time your killing blows just right in the turn sequence, you get additional skill points to spend on acquiring vital skills for your characters. As such, sometimes you may actually want to wait a turn or two - even at the risk of taking more hits from the enemy - before unleashing a killing blow, in order to get more skill points. (This feature was in Episode I as well.)

One beef I have with the game is that every monster on the field map actually represents a group of monsters. (Kind of like "Superstar Saga" for the GBA.) So you can't tell what you're up against until the battle begins.