Ghosts of the Arcanum

Dynamic Synergy Battle



Commands

Slash/Strike/Pierce- Basic attack. Basic attacks can be chained into a 2-hit combo by holding Confirm. If Shift is pressed right after the 2-hit combo is executed, a Chain Breaker can be perform, inflicting a large amount of damage and reducing the target's Boost Count. Targets can also counter attack during the attack phase, which can be dodged by pressing and holding Cancel at the right time.

Relent- Take a defensive stance to reduce damage received by enemy attacks. Selecting a particular target to defend against further reduces damage. Relent also recovers Ability Points (AP) by 20% + current Chain Count. If AP is full (100) then Condition (Health) is recovered by 10%.

Temporal- Activate Temporal ability. Resets Chain Count and does not build Momentum. After a Temporal ability is activated for that character, command then becomes Release. Selecting Release deactivates that character's current Temporal ability. Using either command leaves the player character in a Passive stance.

Abilities- Use Action abilities that consume AP. Most abilities have different effects depending on what buttons are held after execution.

Disengage- Escape battle. If any player characters' conditions are Down, then choosing Disengage will help the Downed characters recover health quicker.

Status Display

Endurance- This is the player characters' health indicator. Health is indicated by Excellent (100-76%), Fine (75-51%), Caution (50-26%), Danger (25-2%), Critical (1%), and Down (0%). A player character must be reduced to Critical condition before they can be KO'd.

Action Points- Each player character possesses a maximum of 100 AP, which are used to execute Abilities.

Action Gauge- The Action Gauge refills throughout battle each time a command is used by a player character. A full Action Gauge is required in order to perform any commands with that player character.

Excession Gauge- The border around/behind the Action Gauge. It fills as basic attacks and Abilities are performed by the player character. The higher the Momentum, the more the Excession Gauge is filled. The Excession Gauge is required in order to perform Excession Abilities, which are activated by holding Shift after an Ability has been used. Also, if more than one player character's Excession Gauge is filled, any Temporal abilities currently activated will be shared between them.

Temporal Ability Window- Displays the current Temporal Ability and the number of charges/turns remaining to utilize its effects.

Chain and Momentum Indicators

Chain Count Indicator- Chains are built by performing attacks against the enemy. As the Chain Count rises, a number of bonuses are granted ranging from attack damage increase to experience point increase.

Momentum Indicator- As battle progresses, the Momentum Indicator rises from Lowest, Low, Medium, High, to Highest. The higher the Momentum, the faster your player characters are and the higher their damage variance is. If Shift is held as an enemy is taking a turn during the Highest state of Momentum, the player's party will enter Overclock Mode. During Overclock the enemy combatants are unable to act, allowing the player characters to perform a number of actions in quick succession.

Field Polarity Indicator

Indicates the current Field Polarity. Positive effects are displayed in green, while negative effects are displayed in red. Some of these effects are:

Regenerate- All combatant's health condition is recovered per turn.

Degenerate- All combatant's health condition is drained per turn.

Enemy HP Gauge

The enemy's HP Gauge. This appears each time damage is inflicted on an enemy target.

Cool-Down & Warm-Up
Most player characters' actions possess either a cool-down time or a warm-up time. Cool-time reduces the speed at which the action time gauge recharges after using a command or ability, whereas warm-up time increases the speed.

Enmity
Enmity determines how aggressive the enemy is towards certain player characters. The higher a PC's enmity, the more they become a target to certain enemies. Certain actions and abilities build enmity, particularly healing skills. The current target of an enemy and its Enmity is indicated in the Aggro section of the enemy status window.