Finished this game recently. Meant to make a thread about it while playing but instead I just played more. That should tell you something about my thoughts on this game. Don't mind the text in the screenshot; this is not a Japanese game, I just played in Japanese. Quoting my earlier thoughts from a different thread with additions in brackets:
Universal mechanics summary:WhiteShark wrote: ↑ February 19th, 2023, 03:46Really fun tactics game with an excellent soundtrack and art. There's some RPG DNA but not too much. There's XP but it's mostly shared, so unused units don't lag that far behind. Levelling up gets your leader units points to distribute in one of Attack, Defense, or Utility (the exact effects are unique to the unit in question), but points may be redistributed at any time between battles.
Equipment-wise each leader unit has a weapon slot, a utility slot, and a mysterious third I have yet to unlock. [This turned out be the 'gem' slot. Gems offer stat bonuses and an automatic spellcard cast after X attacks. They are unlocked by defeating optional bosses.] Weapons are again unique to each leader and can change how they play quite a bit, offering different abilities, stats, and elemental alignment. Summoned units also level up but have no customization options.
The main thing is deciding what units to bring to a battle. You can field three leader units and up to three summoned units, although there's a capacity system for summons with each taking up a different amount of capacity, so right now I can only field three of them by sticking to the lowest tier ones. Deciding which to take is really important not only for their unique abilities but also for their elemental alignments: elemental attacks made against an opponent vulnerable to that element are automatically criticals, which generally do not happen randomly. Unsurprisingly, elemental attacks made against a resistant enemy are weak.
Ability design is really interesting in this game. It seems the developer was aiming for maximum elegance while still giving units multiple abilities. Consequently there are no action menus in combat. Clicking on the ground moves you there; clicking on an enemy does an attack; clicking on an ally does an assist; clicking on the unit itself does a wait ability. [There are also react abilities which have a chance to activate when struck.] Those are the basics, but you also quickly unlock ultra attacks and assists, which can be used after a leader unit fills his ultra meter and happen automatically when you would do the normal version of that action. Each unit has a unique combination of abilities. Some are shared across all members of their elemental alignment, others not.
- Facing: backstabs ignore evasion and do more damage.
- Elemental Affinity: almost everything has an element. Striking a vulnerability is an automatic critical, striking a resistance is an automatic weak attack.
- Elevation: attacks from higher elevation do more damage; no penalty for attacks from lower elevation.
- Spellcards: As long as the protagonist is not downed, you can activate a spellcard during any of your units' turns. There are many spellcards to collect with varying effects.
- Buffs/debuffs: lots of different buffs and debuffs, but a unit can only have ONE buff/debuff active at any time, so buffs and debuffs overwrite each other.
- Revive: leader units go into a downed state instead of dying when they hit zero HP; they can be resuscitated by any allied unit (or by any healing effect) and they will revive on their own naturally given sufficient time. If they suffer sufficient damage while downed, they will be forced to retreat from the battlefield. Also, there is no permadeath for any unit.
- Attack types: melee, projectile, arcing, etc. Each has different unique properties. Melee, for example, has the 'combo' trait: if a melee unit is stationed next to an enemy and an ally attacks that same enemy, the melee unit gets an automatic free attack.
- Play on hard. Normal is a cakewalk.
- Set battle speed to x2 in the settings and then use CheatEngine's speedhack on top of that once you get used to things. (There is one battle with a certain allied NPC where using speedhack can cause a crash, so if this happens to you, don't use speedhack on her turn.)
- If a battlefield has a treasure chest on it, DO NOT finish the battle without opening it. Most treasure chests contain spellcards and if you miss them, you won't have another shot at collecting them until NG+.
- Getting the quests for optional leader weapons seems to require using that leader a certain amount.
► Missable Content Triggers
