This is where the real meat of the game takes place. Our guys, for this battle, are in the upper right corner, while our enemies are down in the lower left. First off, let's check the victory conditions.
The first two categories are self explanatory, so I'll just skip straight to battle mastery. By fulfilling the conditions for a battle mastery during a battle, you unlock it and the game adjusts the difficulty very slightly upwards for you. If you unlock all battle masteries, you get a bonus stage at the end of the game as well as some extra characters for your next run.
Now, let's check out our guys basic stats.
As you can see, Takumi is much more durable than Haruna, while Haruna has a slight SP advantage. This is only a very light overlay meant to give you a general overview on how your characters are doing at the moment, and more detailed info can be accessed on their character sheets. Now, let me go into detail on what some of the terms on screen mean.
HP: Fairly obvious. How much damage a character can take before dying and being pulled out of battle.
EN: Many attacks use up a character's energy, and once it runs out certain attacks cannot be used. There are certain characters that can replenish EN, but we're not getting any of them until later.
SP: Spirit points allow a character to buff themselves up in all sorts of ways, such as doubling damage for a single attack or dodging the next enemy's attack. They cannot be restored during battle, with rare exceptions.
LV. The character's level.
NEXT. How much experience a character needs to level up.
WL. A character's Will stat influences what abilities they can use. Some attacks require their will stat to be at a minimum level. A character can raise their will stat by equipping certain items before battle, and for performing various actions during battle, such as attacking enemies.
EFF. Effects applied to the character during the battle, such as accuracy bonuses.
SUP. Honestly, I have no idea what it does, but as far as I know the more swords and shields that are colored in, the better a character's attacks and defenses are buffed.
Terrain Info. Depending on the type of terrain a character is placed on, they get various bonuses and debuffs.
These are the various actions a character can take during battle. The orb with wings leads to the character's spirits, while the shoe allows them to move. The sword opens up the attack menu, but there are no enemies in range at the moment so it's crossed out. The SPEC option on the left opens up the character's profile, with what abilities and stats they have displayed there.
Now, let's get Takumi in range of that enemy rabbit, shall we?
This is where you see the predicted results of a particular course of action. You'll note that Takumi's chance to hit is at two-hundred percent. This is because I used the Strike spirit to max it out for a turn. The strike spirit is that apple to the right of his portrait. The moonspeak underneath the rabbit is basically stating that it's doing nothing at all to dodge or defend. The animation button near the Start Battle button allows you to turn battle animations on and off, which is incredibly useful for when overly long attack animations are being flung about.
This is the after battle report, with a listing of the experience, battle points and fundamental points gained from the battle.
Takumi dealt around 3000 damage but unfortunately didn't kill the rabbit. Then I moved Haruna ahead and ended turn, as there was no one she could attack. During the enemy's turn, that rabbit Takumi nearly killed closed in on Haruna and attacked.
Fortunately, as you can see, it missed, and Haruna countered with a killing blow. One of the Getter robos then threw an axe at her, which dealt around 2000 damage. Haruna countered for roughly the same amount.
This is when a different rabbit attacked Takumi from outside his attack range. Seeing as even if I told him to dodge his chances would be slim, I had him defend. Defending halves damage a character takes if they get hit by an enemies attack, which can save lives. Dodging usually lowers the enemy's chance to hit by half, with rare exceptions.
The results of that rabbit's attack were negligible at best.
So this back and forth continues onward until turn four arrives. Only the enemy crow is left, and all the attacks Haruna has gotten in have bolstered her will to over 120. This unlocks her second attack.
I decided to have Haruna use a Focus spirit, which increases her chance to hit and lowers enemy's chance to hit by thirty percent each. Then the final attack (or so I hoped) began.
Yes, the crow survived. Fortunately Takumi could still fight, so I sent him in to mop up.
And lo, victory was achieved, with the crow being kind enough to drop some Karin Beans for us, items that fully restore health. Now for the post-battle plot.
Takumi: Looks like the unbelievable reports of this area becoming hallowed weren't so unbelievable.
Haruna: What should we do now?
Takumi: Good question. Let's split up. Haruna, you go ahead to Tohno's mansion and meet up with her.
Haruna: And you?
Takumi: I'm going to go take a look around. I want to confirm what's going on in this city. There may be places where the stagnation is just as strong as is it here.
Haruna: Gotcha. I'll see you later.
Takumi: Yeah.
And now we've arrived at the Intermission! This is where we end up between stages, and it gives us time to equip our guys with items and upgrade their stats with BP and FP.
This is the save/load game screen, which we'll be seeing a lot. Our save is No. 3, with my other games sandwiching it. Well, this update's over.