World
Make your way across the vast expanse of the world!
Encounter dungeons, towns, and reality-shifting events!
Test your mettle against the demons that plague the land and send them back from the stygian pit from which they spawned!
Battle Section
The Extend Battle system that the Agarest series is known for has been revamped and refined. Battles now unfold at a feverish rate, with the player now able to chain together multiple attacks with just a push of a button!
Extend Battle
By assigning attacks to specific buttons, you can control multiple party members simultaneously without having to wrestle with complicated input schemes.
- Activate preset skills with the push of a button!
- The coordination attacks and special techniques the series is known for are now easier than ever to initiate in battle!
Ultimate Strike
Ultimate Strikes are bonus attacks that are activated once you fulfill certain conditions. Taking advantage of your enemy's weaknesses as well as skillfully chaining together continuous attacks is the key to triggering an Ultimate Strike. If you time things right, you can take down even the strongest of enemies without worrying about be attacked in turn!
Ultimate Strike Activated!
Formations
Your battle party will always fight from a Formation. Each character has their own unique formation and the formation used at the start of every battle will be that of your party's leader. Formations have different types of effects attached to them and every character who is a part of the formation will receive the benefits from those effects.
In addition, in order for a character to participate in an Extend Attack they must be a part of the party's current formation.
System Basics
The Extended Battle system is a quasi-real time command-based battle system. The character icons at the top of the screen represent the turn order. The character displayed under "Action" is the one that's currently allowed to take action. Once a character's turn comes up, select a Ring Command to act.
Ring Commands
There are seven actions that you can perform via Ring Commands. As battles will be paused until you confirm a command, take time to carefully considering your plan of attack before taking action.
Attack
First, select an opponent and then start attacking it using skills.
Standby
Maintaining AP while standing by helps one's Wait value decrease, thus you'll get your turn faster.
Leader
Consume SP to change your party's leader. When the leader is changed, the current formation will automatically reflect the change.
EX Skill
Consume SP to distribute effects of an EX Skill to all characters positioned within the current formation.
Switch
You can swap out battle party members with those on standby by using half of your available AP. Swapping out characters that have become incapacitated will not use AP. However, characters suffering from status ailments cannot be swapped out of your party. If you change out the leader of your party, another character will automatically be assigned the role.
Support
Use skills that can restore HP, and enhance abilities.
Escape
Run away from the battle. If you fail, you can still try to get out of it by spending soul coins that correspond to the level of your opponent(s). You might not be able to escape if you don't have the necessary soul coins.
"Wait" and determining Action Order
Every skill has a Wait value attached to it that will increase every time the skill is used. The Wait value will determine when a character's turn will come around again once their current turn ends. The character with the lowest Wait value will have their turn come before any of the others.
This means that if a character's Wait value is low enough, they can sometimes perform consecutive actions. By paying attention to each of your party member's Wait value, it would be possible to take out an enemy with giving them the chance to retaliate.
You can reduce a character's Wait value by increasing their AGI or through equipment bonuses.
Overwait
Occasionally, a character will be allowed to act before their Wait value has been reduced. Should you continue to act, you might enter a state called Overwait. Once in this state, you won't be able to control that character, let alone participate in an extended attack, until their Wait value goes down to a certain level. Because Overwait significantly weighs down the forces of the entire party, one way to get around it is to hang back until the Wait value decreases while at the same time conserving AP.
Attack Skills
Button Attributes
Set a skill for each button, and use AP to unleash a variety of attacks. Each button has a unique characteristic; the T button triggers a Burst attack move which throws an opponent in the air, the S button unleashes a Stun attack move which temporarily puts an opponent in an unconscious state, the X button performs a Down attack move which knocks down the target, and the C button fires off a versatile Ranged attack.
You can continue to attack until you run out of AP (Action Points). The longer you can continue to maintain a combo, the more damage you will inflict upon the targeted enemy.
One thing to keep in mind is that with the exception of the attacks triggered by the C button, only attacks that correspond to the target's current state of being. For example, if the target has been launched into the air with a Burst attack, only attacks performed by pressing either the S or C buttons will connect.
Original Skills
In addition to using basic attack skills to inflict damage on opponents, there are offensive skills known as Original Skills. Each character has a unique Original Skill that they can unleash for serious damage by pressing either the L1 or R1 buttons. These types of attacks require both AP and special technique points to use. When you reduce an opponent's break value to zero, you will earn one special technique point, also known as an Ultimate Point (UP). Even if you fail to break through a target's guard, half of the Ultimate Gauge will roll over to the next turn.
Cross Change System - Original Skill "Cross Change"
Once you reach a certain level, you will learn another Original Skill. If you have more than two different skills available, you can switch which skills you have equipped.
Also, by using Cross Change (C button) you change the effect and appearance of an Original Skill.
- L1 button triggers an attribute attack which is relatively weak, but only consumes 1 UP.
- While R1 button doesn't have any attribute effects it is incredibly powerful, but will consume 2 UP.
The Three Types of Battle Bonuses
When attacking with skills, taking special actions will get you various bonuses like AP and SP, as well as Wait reductions.
Motion Bonus
During an attack, you can earn an SP bonus by changing your target's motion state.
Limit Bonus
When you reach the absolute apogee of a particular motion while continuing to assault an enemy with certain motion attack moves, you can increase the amount of recovered AP. For example, when using the ∆ button to unleash a series of Burst attacks and launch them up into the air, you will receive an AP bonus if you hit the maximum elevation capable by that particular attack.
Strike Bonus
By successfully following up with another attack move at a specific time where the previous attack move is about to complete, Wait will decrease. When going for this bonus, time your button presses carefully; mashing will only hurt your cause.
