Battle System Outline V2

This system is fairly different from the original, though the basic fundamentals of the system are the same. However the useless bits have been cut out and some new things have been put in.

Elimination of Items

Consumable items have been completely done away with, like in SEB2. This removes one unnecessary aspect of combat I feel. Plus items would break the system from a balance standpoint I think.

Auto EP Regeneration

Ether Points, which is the foundation of the entire system is regenerated each passing turn by 2 points. Every 4 turns, the party also gains back an extra 4 EP on top of the 2 gained each turn. This is in to help speed up the system and minimize luls in combat for things like items.

Strike Chain System

Taken from SEB2, when attacking, hold decision to extend your attack. Each stage of the attack costs 6 EP with 5 total stages for a maximum cost of 30 EP. Each character's Strike Chains differ from one another in terms of stats used for damage, algorithms, and hits.

Outburst Skill System

The same system as in the original. Each time a character attacks, they gain a little bar at the bottom of their battle interface. Attack 3 times to make that character's array of special attacks available. The new addition to this system is the inclusion of spell usage increasing OB count as well. This decision was made since people complained about how in the original, you had to go through risky normal attacks that could miss to get to the OBs. Now you will make them available no matter what. As with SEB2, using OBs increases SW count.

Exceed Limit System

A system from SEB2. Hold decision during an OB in order to extend it into a character's EX Limit. EX Limits are one step below Sacred Will in power, and thus, they cost less to use as well. EX Limits take 2 SW Blocks.

Sacred Will System

Formerly known as Finish Burst. Sacred Will are character's ultimate special moves. They are available to use once you have 5 SW Blocks. You gain SW blocks by attacking and using spells, however the gain is minimal, to maximize your SW gain, you must use OBs. Once you have 5 blocks, you can hold decision during that character's final OB skill to use their SW. So right off the bat SWs are not available.

Crisis Recover

By holding cancel during a Strike Chain, OB, or enemy SW, you can expend 1 SW Block to boost a character's LF and EP a bit. If you feel that healing spell is going to be too late, then you can hold cancel to heal that character and probably save their life. This also serves to help defend against enemy SWs which was a major complaint against the game.

Barrier LF System

An enemy only system. Enemies have a second life value called Barrier. As long as enemies still have Barrier, then your melee attacks will do half damage. The goal is to reduce enemy Barrier in order to deal full damage. Different enemies have differing amounts of Barrier, however they all recieve the same damage. 1 hit from an attack = 1 point of damage to Barrier. So a 5 hit attack will reduce Barrier by 5 points. Barrier can be checked with the Analyze Command that all characters have.

Focus Guard System

All characters have the focus command. Using this command restores that character's LF by 1/10 and restores 5 EP on top of the EP gained back by passing turns. Focus also greatly reduces damage from everything except enemy SWs. If you're really low on EP, then it might be a good idea to focus once or twice. You'll be back up to speed in no time.
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...And this is what I have in mind. Any complaints, comments, death threats regarding this, feel free to voice them.

I'm mostly done. Focus, analyze, OBs, exceed limit, barrier guard, strike chain, and EP regeneration are in place anyway. This is a lot easier now that I only have a cast of 4 playable characters to deal with, heh.

I guess this section is back in action again

Since I'm fixing and redoing many parts of this game. I guess I should keep my progress here rather than make yet another page.

Well after a long break due to lack of general will to work and a gaming binge, I finally came back to my work and found that I no longer felt incredible laziness while looking at my incomplete work. So it's back to the grind for me!

So what have I done so far?

I re-outlined the story. The overall story is mostly the same, but the execution in the beginning is far far different, and from there, many things will deviate from the original. What does this mean for you? You'll have to see, hoho~. A big factor that contributes to this is the inclusion of Patchoulli and Priel from the getgo. So the story is definitely going to be altered to accomodate for them. I'm actually looking forward to having them in from the start to interact will all the characters they missed out on. Basically, those two got screwed really bad in the first version. They were hastily shoehorned in. Now they're getting their chance. I'm also redoing other story details that I felt weren't all that great.

Graphics-wise, I created Veili and Gunnar's all new sprite sheets for battle, and I'm working on Priel now. For some reason, I've been dying to make Priel's new sprites. So this will be fun. I also made a new battle interface design. It's much better looking than both SEB and SEB2's I feel. This new look easily displays OB and FB without getting in the way of the art. So that's a win for me.



On the technical side of things, the battle system has been altered and more unified. So hopefully it will play out a lot better than previously. I've taken some inspiration from SEB2, but not so much to make them clones of each other. I'll post a battle system outline entry separately for what I have done and what's to come.

Anyway, have some art to leave off. It also shows Patch and Priel's new designs. No screenshots and such yet. I'm saving that for later.

P.S. We have a new poll up. As usual, the winner is what I'll go with.

Art by Nuechan